Greater Manchester Low Carbon Economic Area
Project Developments - Update – September 2011
The ecoSMARTER Project
ecoSMARTER is the regional role out of a pilot project in Manchester that helped SME businesses reduce their energy this by offering a unique energy monitoring system and an online dashboard which enabled targets to be set to reduce usage and aimed to develop an ‘energy saving community’.
It will be delivered by Private Sector SMEs who are supported by the ERDF to assist 250 Micro SMEs in the North West of England. It builds upon the experiences of the initial project and will offer a greater level of free face to face ‘in business’ support.
Businesses that sign-up will have a free electricity monitor installedon site that lets them see how much they are using in real-time. They will receive support from a sustainability expert to help them reduce their energy consumption. In a similar project average savings of 16% or £2819 per business per annum (or £124/employee) have been achieved.
The ecoSMARTER sustainability expert will provide a carbon footprint calculation for the business and environmental training to help them develop a bespoke environmental policy, an action plan, a staff engagement plan and a green marketing strategy.
On completion of the programme, businesses will receive the Carbon Smart Certification, a nationally recognised standard that highlights their green credentials. The certification can be used by businesses in their marketing, and is recognised by central and local government as evidence of environmental achievement in their procurement procedures.
ecoSMARTER launches on 3rd October to North West based SMEs
NationalAcademy for Low Carbon Skills
TraffordCollege will officially launch its NationalSkillsAcademy for Environmental Technologies on October 7th. The Academy will form the Manchesterand Cheshire Hub, which is part of a national network based on sector need and employer demand providing NVQ Level 3 qualifications in the low carbon sector. Training will include that in the areas of Installation and Maintenance of Solar Thermal Hot Water Systems, the Installation and Maintenance of Small Scale Solar Photovoltaic Systems and the Installation and Maintenance of Heat Pump Systems.
Resource efficiency support saves businesses £100m to date
Manchester-based environmental support programme, ENWORKS, has reached a landmark of £100 million of cost savings in businesses to date, along with achieved CO2e savings of 474,500 tonnes.
The savings have been achieved by helping companies of all sizes and sectors to use less energy, water and materials, and to divert waste away from landfill, to reduce their carbon emissions and improve their profitability.
News of the milestone comes as ENWORKS celebrates its ten-year anniversary and just months after it won NGO of the Year at the national BusinessGreen Leaders Awards.
Commenting on the achievements Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council said: "By overseeing these huge environmental efficiency savings, ENWORKS continues to make a positive difference to local businesses, people and the environment - this is a significant achievement which all concerned can be very proud of."
Established to tackle the market failure associated with business action on the low-carbon agenda, ENWORKS has advised more than 11,500 businesses across Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
The service has already helped to safeguard and create 7,488 jobs, and to retain and secure sales contracts of over £230 million. It has also assisted more than 3,300 adults with training and skills development, targeted at stimulating low-carbon business growth.
Independent evaluation of ENWORKS’ 2007-2010 support programme revealed that the £9 million invested in it delivered £178 million of net additional GVA to the UK economy. A summary of ENWORKS’ achievements in stimulating economic and environmental growth is available to download online at
Launch of Get Me Toasty
September saw the launch of Greater Manchester’s Toasty campaign which encourages residents across the 10 districts to improve the energy efficiency of their home through improving their insulation. Through bringing together energy company grant funding, local authority support and local insulation installers, most of GM’s homeowners can get their lofts and cavity walls insulated for free.
This is a groundbreaking scheme and is the first time that the 10 districts have come together to work in this way. The scheme was launched at the Trafford Centre on Sept 8th by Mr Toast who has since been touring Greater Manchester to encourage householders to take up the offer. Within the first fortnight of the launch, householders have signed up to have over 3000 lofts and cavities insulated, which is an excellent start.
The Toasty campaign is part of GM’s Housing Retrofit programme which aims to get at least 70% of all GMs lofts and cavities insulated by 2013.
Greater Manchester Social Housing pV initiative
Social Housing providers in GM have been working hard to develop solar panel projects that utilise the new Feed-in-Tariff. Several approaches have been taken to explore the various finance options, from a self-funded approach through to a best value rent-a-roof model. GM is also looking to establish a longer term Special Purpose Vehicle to utilise the FiT and help to deliver solar panel projects whilst also managing the resulting income, allowing for reinvestment in further retrofit projects.
As a result of this work, several thousand roofs of social homes in GM will be fitted with solar panels through the autumn and winter, ready to bring free electricity to tenants for years to come and consequently lower household energy bills.
Low Carbon Housing Retrofit Strategy for GM
In order to understand both the opportunity and challenge presented by Green Deal and other energy efficiency policy instruments, it is important to have a thorough knowledge of the existing housing stock, the practical solutions available for these homes and the overall objectives that the various initiatives are helping to support. GM has therefore undertaken to produce a low carbon housing retrofit strategy which attempts to set a trajectory for emissions reduction from housing that contributes towards the conurbations overall emissions reduction targets for 2020 and 2050.
This strategy which is currently out for consultation amongst GM (and wider) stakeholders sets the context for Green Deal in GM and will allow LAs and social housing providers the ability to plan and prioritise activity to have maximum benefit. The document sets out how business, the public sector and communities must come together to deliver a major housing improvement programme on an unprecedented scale over the next few decades. The strategy demonstrates the economic advantage to GM through making this a success to be realised through the creation of a new retrofitting industry serving a multi-billion pound market.
GM Heat Networks
On the 15th September Manchester were one of only 20 local authorities invited to attend a workshop to discuss heat network opportunities and barriers in the UK. Meeting with other leading local authorities, representatives from DECC, the heat network industry and academia, Manchester and GM are now part of a new UK network designed to enable information sharing between project developers and with Government policy-makers. DECC are currently developing new UK heat policy, built on latest research which sets out the potential for 14-46% of UK properties to be served by heat networks.
Low Carbon Procurement Framework
As the development of Greater Manchester’s low carbon economy continues it will result in billions of pounds of investment across a diverse range of products and services and with this come major opportunities for local companies. While this investment will be a given, there are no guarantees local companies will benefit from it; and it is for this reason that framework is being developed. Greater Manchester Chamber and its partners are committed to making sure that the transition to a low carbon economy acts as a major stimulus for jobs, training and growth for GM Businesses.
To maximise the benefit for local companies a low carbon procurement framework is being developed. It will work in both the public and private sector, covering building fit and retrofit, renewable energy generation, office and ancillary equipment and business processing / manufacturing equipment.
The frameworks will enable organisations to buy the right goods confidently, at the most competitive prices, in an easy to access and administratively efficient manner. These efficiencies will increase the size of the market and speed up the transition to a low carbon economy as well as creating jobs, training opportunities apprenticeships and local demand for the Low Carbon Goods and Services Sector.
Low Carbon Venture Capital Fund Launched
National Grid, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution, The University of Manchester Intellectual Property (UMIP) and The UMIP Premier Fund (UPF),managed by MTI partners, have launched the £1 million Co‐Managed Energy InnovationFund. The Co‐Managed Energy Innovation Fund has been created to identify and develop novel research and technologies for commercialisation and utilisation by the distribution and transmission industry to improve delivery of electricity to customers.
An Information Day for Energy Innovation was held at Core Technology Facility, Manchester, on Thursday 22nd September 2011. The information day set out, via a series of presentations, the criteria for the fund and how to apply to it and also provided a forum for Manchester Energy to discuss the challenges and issues facing the electricity networks. Presentations included keynote speakers from UMIP, National Grid and Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution all highlighting their expectations of the fund; an introduction to the application process and an introduction to Manchester Energy ( including a discussion of the importance of networks
New Renewable Energy production Facility Opened
Charles Hendry, the Minister of State for Energy, visited Granada Material Handling (GMH) on Tuesday 30 August 2011 to open their new renewable production facility.
The new workshop has been created specifically for the production of cranes for the offshore wind industry after GMH’s recent success in securing a contract with offshore wind farm developer RWE npower renewables to manufacture 164 separate crane units for its Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm.
Gwynt y Môr, which is located 18km off the North Wales coast, consists of 160 turbines producing a total of 576 MW of energy from the wind, two offshore substations, a large new onshore substation and 11km of underground cabling.Once fully operational, energy generation from Gwynt y Môr is expected to be equivalent to the average annual needs of around 400,000 homes.Onshore construction of the €2 billion project began in November 2009 and the wind farm will become fully operational towards the end of 2014.
The multi-million pound contract secures works and income for two years for the Rochdale
business, which has enabled the redevelopment of its workshop and provided the financial security from which to grow its staff.
GMH is a specialist material handling equipment manufacturer and service provider that recognised the offshore wind industry as a growth area and, with assistance from Envirolink Northwest, has recently diversified their business to service the sector. The visit by Charles Hendry to GMH demonstrates the interest and support from government for the industry and the recognition of the potential for significant employment and economic benefits to the UK through the development of the local supply chain.
GMH have been supported in their endeavours by Envirolink Northwest, a key partner working on the GM Low Carbon Economic Area. Envirolink Northwest has supported GMH with their diversification into the offshore wind industry, providing technical, process improvement and marketing support helping to create and safeguard a number of jobs. Envirolink Northwest is a programme funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund, the region’s local authorities and industry. The programme supports the development and growth of the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector in the North West of England.